My favorite season. Cool crisp days and long shadows that come earlier each evening. They’ve started harvesting the corn in the field next door, the huge alien creature chewing through the stalks. There’s pot roast for dinner, and I spent an hour this afternoon making the scarecrows in the picture. Aren’t they a hoot! I was in charge of the scarecrow making stand at the Cornwall Manor Fall Festival and learned how to make them with stuffed pantyhose and old clothes. We made all boys; the girl with her braids, scarf and apron was my idea. We didn’t have to buy anything except the bales of straw. The chickens had fun playing in the leftover bale.
The fall festival is always an excuse for a book binge. They sold shopping bags of books for $6. I felt virtuous limiting myself to two bags but I’m pretty good at packing a bag. I bought mostly fiction. Did I really buy 30 books? I’ve been craving good stories lately. A friend recommended the Maisie Dobbs mysteries by Jacqueline Winspear, and I really enjoyed the first one. Now, I’m pretty far into Beach Music by Pat Conroy and enjoying it much more than the last one I read.
I tucked the books from the festival into the baskets of the window seat I found at a discount store. I repurposed a futon chair seat to make a comfy spot to read this winter. The late afternoon sun comes in and you have a beautiful view of the magnolia tree. The upstairs is more inviting now since it continues to be warmer than the first floor.
I went exploring today, heading east on 460 to visit the Windsor Food Lion, some 30 miles away*. A nice store and, low and behold, they had a discount book bin! I took advantage of the 3 for $10 deal to pick up 3 well known writers: Nick Hornby (Slam), Saving Fish From Drowning (Amy Tan), and One Fifth Avenue (Candace Bushnell). The Bushnell book is marked First Edition but a quick Google search shows that it isn’t worth much more than I paid for it. I do feel a bit bad paying so little for books but at least I’m giving them a good home and a chance of being read. Doesn’t that count for something?
I’m sorry to say that my dreams of owning a bookstore are fading. We watched Paperback Dreams, a film about two independent bookstores and their struggles to make a living. Plus, I don’t think I have the commitment to run a retail operation. So, I’m going to check out setting up an online bookstore since I’ve definitely got inventory. I suppose I could rent space at flea markets but it’s just not the same.
*This is the closest big name grocery store. There’s another one about 30 miles west on 460. There’s always the burg but it is crowded and getting there includes waiting on the ferry so it takes an hour each way. Getting access to a wide variety of food has been the biggest challenge for us. We have some small stores with many people relying on Dollar General for their food. I was craving a chain grocery store.
